India: Pet coke import prices keep rising on supply concerns

Indian-delivered prices for seaborne petroleum coke have continued to increase steadily on the back of a consistent demand recovery since July last year.

India’s domestically-produced pet coke prices have also firmed consistently up over the same period, following a steady resurgence in end-user demand from cement manufacturing companies.

The current average price of US-origin pet coke (6.5% sulphur) is assessed at around US$ 125-126 per tonne (t) on CNF India basis, compared with US$ 119-120/t in the last month, this indicating an increase of US$ 6/t over the past one-month period.

Offers for Saudi-origin pet coke (9% sulphur) are presently hovering in the range of US$ 122-123/t CNF India, as against the earlier price of around US$ 117-118/t, resulting in an increase of US$ 5/t over the last month.

The USGC FOB price of pet coke (6% sulphur) – widely accepted as reference across international markets – has increased by US$ 3/t to US$ 75-76/t, over the price of US$ 72-73/t prevailing in the last month.

Average shipping freight rates from USGC to Indian ports for Supramax vessel (50,000-55,000 tons deadweight (DWT)) are currently assessed at US$ 51-52/t.

Meanwhile, however, Indian imports of petroleum coke have decreased by 32% month-on-month to 358,935 t in January from 528,459 t in December 2020.

The increasing price trend of imported pet coke is being observed from July onwards and is continuing in this month also. The firmness of price has more to do with the reduction in supply than increase in demand.

On the global front, pet coke supply still remains constrained owing to the aftereffects of the pandemic. This is leading to reduced demand for middle distillates, such as diesel and aviation fuel, thereby forcing refineries to curtail crude oil production and operate at lower capacities.

The current price trend of pet coke in the international market along with the present marketing conditions normally get reflected in the next revision by domestic oil companies due next month. We will have to wait for the same till 1st of Apr’21.